Re: flexfax: hylaFAX

[Nico Garcia <raoul@cirl.meei.harvard.edu>]

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On Wed, 7 Jan 1998, swamilux@del2 wrote:

> Dear Sir,
> 
> Your name has been referred to us by ADRIAN SUNDERLAND,Graffin Interne
> Fax regarding setting up of Fax server, Telephony, and other operating
> systems.
> 
> In this connection, we want to intimate you about the prospects of
> INTERNET related services in India.

[ A long and fascinating letter about the need for a commercial fax
server system in India deleted for brevity. ]

> There are so many 'Internet' equipment suppliers' mushrooming all over
> India, and with our intrastructure we can carve over own market, in
> India.  In this connection, we visited your 'website' but we are not
> clear about the various options enumerated therein.
> 
> We shall be pleased to receive your reply in this connection about our
> proposal be impart of 'fax servers' from your side.
> 
> Thanking you,
> 
> Yours faithfully,
> 
> K N SWAMY

Oh, my. As one of the readers and beta testers for the HylaFAX system,
I think I can speak for the rest of us in saying that we are flattered.
Since HylaFAX is not commercial software, but rather user-supported
"freeware", perhaps I can answer some of your concerns.

HylaFAX is written mostly by Sam Leffler of SGI, and is being
maintained by Matthias Appitz who monitors the flexfax@sgi.com mailing
list. Sam wrote it and Matthias maintains it out of an interest in the
technical problems and a desire for good fax software for UNIX
systems.

It is free to download from the FTP site and use: the documentation
online at locations like http://www.vix.com/hylafax is what there
is. New technical problems or software needs are solved by writing
them yourself or asking on the flexfax@sgi.com mailing list if someone
has seen a similar problem or has a good idea on how to deal with
that.

It would mean that you would need a competent engineer at your site to
install, configure, and maintain the HylaFAX software. That engineer
would then have the freedom to read any of the source and would be
expected to publish any patches as a courtesy to the rest of us.  The
software includes licensing information, on how the software can be
used for commercial purposes but the code cannot be copied wholesale
and used commercially without providing source code and acknowledging
the copyrights of the original authors.

There is a tremendous amount of UNIX software published under similar
copyrights, so it is not unusual. The Linux operating system, the GNU
C++ compiler, the EMACS editor, X11 windowing system, Kerberos
authentication systems, PGP encryption code, etc. have all had similar
copyrights. And these systems really do *work* for people who need
robust and powerful tools.

Perhaps if you told us just how many computer systems of what
operating systems you need to work with, and what kind of clients for
your fax server you need, we could point you at the right tools, offer
ideas, or even suggest a consultant who could guide you through
configuration and help you get online?

If I lived in India, I'd consider doing it myself, but I think the
airfare would get expensive and I can't afford that much time right
now.

			Nico Garcia
			Engineer, CIRL 
			Mass. Eye and Ear Infirmary
			raoul@cirl.meei.harvard.edu

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